Hewett said his remark came out wrong and he understood how it could be misconstrued. According to The Day of New London, he said Thursday: “What I meant to say was, if you are shy then I have an acre of land in the Everglades.”

Mm hmm. Here’s the audio; judge for yourself. The only thing that gives me pause is that … this guy couldn’t possibly have thought this was acceptable, right? If he’s so tone-deaf as to have meant this the way it sounds, despite a roomful of people sitting around him (all of whom seem to laugh merrily, by the way), how did he get this far in politics without detonating his career long, long ago?